For thirteen years, from 1997 to 2010, the main outlet for my published work was Leisure Books, which was part of Dorchester Publishing. I began with the company when Don D’Auria was bringing the westerns line back to life. Our excellent relationship began when he acquired One-Eyed Cowboy Wild as a mass-market paperback reprint and Black Diamond Rendezvous as a paperback original. From that point on, we would do fifteen more paperback originals and one other reprint. I thought we were on the crest of the wave at the Western Writers of America convention in June 2010, when Don and Leah (Hultenschmidt) received the Lariat Award for their contributions to the western genre and when I received my second Spur award in paperback original. At that time I had a book that had gone through editing with Don (Gather My Horses), plus two more under contract. One (Dark Prairie) was written and in the pipe, and I was beginning to write the other when Dorchester dropped the bomb.
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At about the same time that I brought out Two Novellas, which is to say between the time I finished with Dorchester and the time I took up with Five Star, I worked on a few self-publishing projects.
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During the time between the sinking of Dorchester Publishing and my emergence with another publisher, I worked on some other projects. I did not want to just sit and wait for something to happen, and I was interested in trying some of the self-publishing outlets that people were talking a great deal about.
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Gather My Horses is my nineteenth traditional western novel and the last one I did with my great editor Don D’Auria before he left Dorchester Publishing. The book was supposed to come out as a mass-market paperback in October of 2010, but because of changes at the publishing house, the book came out simultaneously in trade paperback and e-book in June of 2011.
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Not a Rustler is my eighteenth traditional western novel. It was published in February 2010 by Leisure Books (Dorchester Publishing). In this book I tried to maintain continuity with my previous two westerns, in which I worked at straightforward action with strong elements of character and landscape.
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Stranger in Thunder Basin is my seventeenth traditional western novel. It was published in April 2009 by Leisure Books (Dorchester Publishing). In this novel, I continue my efforts at writing traditional fast-action westerns with strong elements of character and landscape.
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Trouble at the Redstone is my sixteenth traditional western novel. It was published in October 2008 by Leisure Books (Dorchester Publishing). After having written a couple of pensive, atypical westerns with Death at Dark Water and Lonesome Range, interspersed with the crossover western-mysteries featuring Jimmy Clevis, I thought it would be a good idea to try my hand again with a more traditional fast-action western. The result was Trouble at the Redstone.
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Death at Dark Water is my fifteenth traditional western novel. It was published in February 2008 by Leisure Books (Dorchester Publishing). Although it shares some of the features of my other westerns, such as an emphasis on character, landscape, and prose style or language use, it is unlike all of my other works in its initial conception.
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I have decided to post here a bit of commentary that I wrote for the Leisure Books (Dorchester Publishing) website when the book came out in 2006.
Raven Springs is my fourteenth traditional western novel and the third in my mini-series about Jimmy Clevis, the good-natured cowboy who finds himself having to solve mysterious connections and disappearances. The main reason I wanted to write this novel was that I like Jimmy as a character and I did not feel I was done with him when I finished Rancho Alegre. I think of him as a character who has his own life and who holds some enduring interest for readers.
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My novel Lonesome Range was a challenge to write and, for me at least, one of the two or three best things I had written up to this point. For my entry on this novel, I am posting the commentary that I wrote for the Leisure Books (Dorchester Publishing) website when the book came out in 2006.
John D. Nesbitt
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